to still be freaked out by some books from my childhood

[babyfedleaning]

Following on from the thread about children's tv programmes from our youth, it got me thinking about the books I used to love that unnerved me. Several of them got made into tv programmes but loads didn't. In particular I remember The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner where all the ramblers in the countryside are baddies! And A Parcel of Patterns about the plague. Anyone got any more?

^ as a child, at the time it was first read to me.

' Argh - the Moomins! What were those white things that looked like ghosts? They were TERRIFYING!'

Hattifatteners, babyfed Silent and mysterious and given to gathering.

When I was about 11 or 12 I used to live in absolute terror of a nuclear holocaust. It was all thanks to all those post-apocalyptic children's books like Z for Zachariah, and Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells. I also loved Nicholas Fisk - A Rag A Bone and A Hank of Hair scared me shitless.

When I was a bit older, I read Robert Cormier, I Am The Cheese which is enough to send any sensitive teenager into paranoid meltdown.

There is an illustration of a demon in The Last Battle by C S Lewis that I can't look at to this day! Even thinking of it makes me cringe.

And I have never liked Captain Hook, I remember stopping my ears when the teacher read Peter Pan ( the Barry version) out in serial form.

And I don't like that cannibal princess in the Grimm story with her beastly garden.

Grinny was very disturbing. The stuff in Margaret Mahys The Changeover with the stamp on your hand to take over your body gave me nightmares for a long time.

I agree about The Owl Service, and the Weirdstone.

Someone up thread mentions Under Plum Creek - I wonder if it is the locusts in that? Though it is a very dark book overall - I think in real time, Laura had a brother that died then as well.

Oh yes, M R James- the master!

And also, not a children's book, but I read Metamorphosis when I was about 8, ( early reader syndrome) and I honestly worried for ages that it was a something that could actually happen (to me).

I have The Changeover :) Yes, that was scary with that evil old man, but I loved the bit at the end where she and her boyfriend are making a miniature moving scene for her little brother.

A Little Princess upset me a lot, the bit where she is being badly treated and her father is dead. I would worry about my parents dying and being left starving.

Oh, just remembered that book about the twin girls who are separated at birth, but one is evil and manages to teach the other to astrally project then takes over her body. By Lois Somebody? I was paranoid that my astral double would fly out of my body when I was asleep.

Good night Mr Tom. A systematic and graphic account of abuse.

I still get the shivers when I think about it. For the life of me I can't understand how people think it's suitable for children - and frequently recommend it on Mumnet.

Agree about The Fox Club Bold :(

Z for Zachariah and Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh were by the same author.

i remember reading goodnight mr tom for the first time in year 7 and being completely gripped-brilliant book and so was carrie's war.

I first read Watership Down when I was eight. What a mistake that was. It was over 20 years before I could bring myself to read it again.

I also had a book of Grimm's fairy tales that were pretty much the uncensored versions (not totally unchanged, but still with loads of the gory bits left in). There was one story called The Juniper Tree that really upset me; I still find it hard to read. It starts off with a little boy who's killed by his jealous stepmother. How does she kill him? Why, by telling him there's an apple in that big wooden chest over there and slamming the lid down, decapitating him, when he goes to look. It only gets worse from there too. Obviously the woman gets hers in the end but it's such a sad, twisted, bleak story. Clearly it affected me deeply because I'm going on about it!!

The Grimm stories are very dark, you can find them uncensored online if you want a disturbing few hours.

Some Hans Christian Anderson tales are quite disturbing, we have an old omnibus which has some I'd never seen until we inherited this old house and a lot of old books to go with it.

There's one about storks bringing dead babies to houses where older brothers had been shooting catapults at the birds. And another one where a family of snails were delighted to be caught and eaten.
Well written but creepy.

Silver, they were not seperated.at birth. One of the twins died during the pregnancy and then starts haunting the other twin and trying to take over her body. Lois Lowry.
Am I very weird because The Owl Service et al never scared me. I loved all of Garners work!

DownByTheRiverside - that's it! I still have occasional bad dreams about hattifatteners .

Kafka at the age of 8 Skinidin? Blimey!

I don't think it's a book but does anyone remember a weird animated film called The Last Unicorn? There was a horrible undertone of menace about it. All a bit ALice in Wonderland. The unicorns turned into foam on the sea after being driven into it by the red bull. Absolutely terrifying!

I've always loved all of these books, and I still own and re-read many of them. DS shares my love of many of them, and DD is a passionate Moomin fan.
Yes, The Last Unicorn. We have the book and the DVD. Definitely not for small children.

Fubsy yes to Marianne Dreams, those stones when they make their escape are terrifying, "not the light.. not the light..."

Also, I think it is The Tree That Sat Down - there is a bit where a beautiful woman removes her face and she is a witch underneath and her face is held in place with pegs and clips. I was a big re-reader of books as a child (still am actually), but I had to hide that book as it terrified me so much.

Yes to Watership Down, and a particular Nicholas Fisk book - the name of the book escapes me but the main character was called Lettice. It was very unsettling.

'Little Lost Angel', and 'The Selfish Giant'.

Robert Cormier's teenage books were very disturbing I thought! The Chocolate War books had horrible bullying and After the First Death was another scary one.

I also had a book of traditional Irish fairytales which were full of children being stolen and a particularly scary one where a woman had been paralysed by hundreds of wasps settling on her skirt and stinging her.

Fairytales are eerie

Also, anyone remember a passage in one of the Little House books where a cousin (?) of Laura's was stung by yellowjackets and had to be trussed up in a kind of paste and bandages thing?

Obviously I'm terrified of being stung by things!!!!!

Minesa I was freaked out by The Juniper Tree too.

The person who said 'The Wooden Doll' -- the doll wasn't called Dido was she? Because I read an absolutely terrifying book about a malevolent doll called Dido, and another by the same author called Pavane for a Dead Infanta. I can't remember who wrote them but they were fantastically frightening.

The bit in Moondial where the abusive governess tells the little girl with the birthmark that the devil will get her if she looks in a mirror....and then pulls all the drapes off a load of mirrors in the room. It was chilling. I've never forgotten it.